Random blog posts about research in political communication, how people learn or don't learn from the media, why it all matters -- plus other stuff that interests me. It's my blog, after all. I can do what I want.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Spring Break

It's February 1, so of course we're all thinking of Spring Break. I found this list of spring breaks of universities (and oddly, high schools), and let's accept for the moment that it's accurate. Me being me, I immediately exported this into a spreadsheet so I could more easily manipulate the data. I wondered, among universities, who may be having spring break together and who may be avoiding (accidentally, of course) one another.

First off, the earliest on the list belongs to the University of Florida (my alma mater), at 2/27 to 3/7. The latest belongs to Kennesaw State, at 4/2 to 4 4/8. Too early, and too late.

Now, who is breaking with whom? Let's look at UGA, as I teach there. UGA has its spring break on 3/7 - 3/11.

With UGA (either same or overlapping): Vanderbilt, Ball State, Emory, Mercer, Eastern Tennessee, Tennessee Tech, University of Central Florida, University of Southern Indiana, University of Memphis, Missouri State University, and Florida Institute of Technology. Notice who's missing? Georgia Tech is at a different time. So is University of Florida. That alone will cut down on drunken spring break brawls. Of this list, UGA has no likely issues with any of them.

It appears 3/14 is the most popular spring break starting date. Indeed, the 3/14 to 3/18 has 22 entries, though that count includes high schools (again, I have no idea why but I'm not gonna take the time to knock them out of the spreadsheet). Many others have 3/14 as a start date but slightly different ending dates, depending I suppose on whether you list on your site that Friday as the end, or that Sunday. Basically, 3/14 is Prime Time for Spring Break.